In addition to activity, everyone now has a merit score, and you need both a certain activity level and a certain merit score in order to reach higher member ranks. The required scores are:

Rank

Required activity

Required merit

Brand new

0

0

Newbie

1

0

Jr Member

30

1

Member

60

10

Full Member

120

100

Sr. Member

240

250

Hero Member

480

500

Legendary

Random in the range 775-1030

1000

You get merit points when someone sends you some for one of your posts. Additionally, when someone sends you merit points, half of those points can be sent by you to other people.

Certain users are designated as "merit sources". They can create new merit out of nothing, up to a limited number per month (which differs per source). I will not be posting a definitive list of merit sources (so that people don't bug them too much), though you'll soon figure out who they are if you pay attention.

There is currently no such thing as a "demerit". I'm hoping that the positive merits alone will be fine. I could add demerits pretty easily later on if necessary, though.

I'm hoping that this system will increase post quality by: - Forcing people to post high-quality stuff in order to rank up. If you just post garbage, you will never get even 1 merit point, and you will therefore never be able to put links in your signature, etc. - Highlighting good posts with the "Merited by" line.

While we will not be directly moderating this, I encourage people to give merit to posts that are objectively high-quality, not just posts that you agree with.

1. Be a somewhat established member. 2. Collect TEN posts written in the last couple of months by other people that have not received nearly enough merit for how good they are, and post quotes for them all in a new Meta thread. The point of this is to demonstrate your ability to give out merit usefully. 3. We will take a look at your history and maybe make you a source.

I am especially eager to have merit sources in sub-communities such as the local sections.

Trivia:

For current members, your initial merit score is equal to the minimum required to your rank. Of that, a certain amount (less than the usual half) is spendable. The spendable amount was calculated based on your current rank and the number of activity points you earned in the last year. A Legendary member who hasn't posted in the last year would still be Legendary, but would not have any spendable merit.

If someone sends you 1 merit, the 0.5 sMerit is not wasted; it is just not shown until you get another merit point.

There are stats here, and you can find someone's merit summary by clicking the "merit" link on their profile.

So I noticed it says unused Merit can be decayed at some point in the future - What's the point of this? Is it just to keep people from stagnating their Merit and not using it?

Also, what are your thoughts on people here using their numerous alt accounts to abuse the Merit system? Granted, there's not much to "abuse", but someone who has a dozen alt accounts, say one of them gets selected as a Merit source, couldn't that have a negative impact on the system?

EDIT (wanted to add): Are you worried about people paying for Merit just to rank up?

I'm not complaining by any means, I like the new stuff. Just wanted to ask a few questions.

- Forcing people to post high-quality stuff in order to rank up. If you just post garbage, you will never get even 1 merit point, and you will therefore never be able to put links in your signature, etc. - Highlighting good posts with the "Merited by" line.

Great Idea, but still in some point it will disregarded or doesn't matter. If you know what I mean.

So I noticed it says unused Merit can be decayed at some point in the future - What's the point of this?

Unused sMerit (sendable Merit). I think it's supposed to incentive rewarding others with merit and punish those that hoard their sMerit.The merit system works only if people actively use it, else everyone is stuck at their current rank.

I wish there would have been some sort of option of giving dislike (-ve merit) to the spam/LQ posts and if any post receives certain -ve merits/dislikes,it should be automatically deleted /hidden

Given the concerns about abuse even with only positive merit, I dont know if I would support that.There's a whole other level to possible abuse vectors when adding negative merit as well, that can decrease somebodies rank.

Also, what are your thoughts on people here using their numerous alt accounts to abuse the Merit system? Granted, there's not much to "abuse", but someone who has a dozen alt accounts, say one of them gets selected as a Merit source, couldn't that have a negative impact on the system?

If they don't have a source: how would they? Unless they are a source, they have to get the merit from somewhere. A group of accounts without a source can't generate merit without making good posts; they can only inefficiently spread it out among the accounts.

If they do have a source, then that's something that we'll need to detect. The merit transfers are public, so it shouldn't be that difficult. There are also various limits in place which would help to limit the damage from that.

Also, what are your thoughts on people here using their numerous alt accounts to abuse the Merit system? Granted, there's not much to "abuse", but someone who has a dozen alt accounts, say one of them gets selected as a Merit source, couldn't that have a negative impact on the system?

If they don't have a source: how would they? Unless they are a source, they have to get the merit from somewhere. A group of accounts without a source can't generate merit without making good posts; they can only inefficiently spread it out among the accounts.

If they do have a source, then that's something that we'll need to detect. The merit transfers are public, so it shouldn't be that difficult. There are also various limits in place which would help to limit the damage from that.

Ahhh, thanks for the response on this. I edited my questions adding one about people trying to purchase Merit, however your last answer (the abuse detection) sort of covers that as well. Thanks!